1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a control method for a print media processing apparatus having a plurality of functions for reading information recorded in magnetic ink on and for printing on print media, and relates to a print media processing apparatus.
2. Related Art
Print media processing apparatuses for reading information printed on a personal or business check or other type of slip or printing on a slip while conveying the slip through a transportation path are known from the literature. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2001-026158, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2006-88688, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2005-144995. As taught in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2005-229514, this type of print media processing apparatus may also have a roll paper printing unit for printing on roll paper or other type of continuous print medium to issue sales receipts, event tickets, coupons, and other types of ticket forms, and a slip printing unit for printing on slips such as personal or business checks while conveying the slip through the transportation path, thus rendering a hybrid print media processing apparatus that combines a continuous medium printing function and a slip printing function with the ability to read magnetic ink characters and images printed on the slip form.
A magnetic ink character reader (MICR) is generally used to read magnetic ink characters, and an image scanner is commonly used for imaging the media. These reading devices are disposed facing the transportation path to read the content of interest as the print medium travels passed the reading position of the reading device (image scanner or MICR device). A print head is also disposed to the transportation path for printing to the print medium after the reading process is completed.
Important information such as the checking account number and check amount is printed in magnetic ink at a predefined location on the face of slips such as checks, and whether the check is valid can be confirmed by reading and referencing the magnetic ink character information. As a result, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2004-243764 (pages 5-14, FIG. 5) and Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2004-243766, for example, teach print media processing apparatuses that execute a printing process based on the magnetic ink character information read by the MICR, or more specifically whether the check is determined valid based on the magnetic ink character information. This enables running the printing process if the check is valid, and discharging the check if the check is invalid, for example. In a conventional print media processing apparatus of this type, the print data for printing on the check after the reading process is stored in a print buffer, and the print mechanism is controlled to execute a printing process based on the buffered print data.
FIG. 14 is a control block diagram of a print media processing apparatus according to the related art. The host computer 110 has a control unit 111 that controls overall operation of the print media processing apparatus.
The print media processing apparatus has a print mechanism 15, a CPU 101, RAM 102, flash ROM 103, a print control unit 105, and a communication interface 109.
The print control unit 105 includes a conversion unit 105a for producing the print data. The RAM 102 functions as a receive buffer for temporarily storing the received print data, and as a conversion buffer for storing the image data that is read for printing by the print mechanism 15. The conversion unit 105a reads and converts the print data from the receive buffer in the RAM 102 to image data for printing, and stores this print image data to an output buffer in RAM 102. The print mechanism 15 includes a print head and carriage, and prints on the print media.
FIG. 15 is a flow chart of the printing operation in this print media processing apparatus according to the related art. When check printing starts (step S51) in an application that first determines check validity using a magnetic ink character reading apparatus (not shown in the figure) included in the print media processing apparatus and determines whether to print the check based on whether the check is valid, the host computer 110 sends print data and a command to start printing to the print media processing apparatus (step S52).
The received print data is then temporarily stored in a receive buffer in RAM 102 in the print media processing apparatus (step S53). The conversion unit 105a reads the data to be printed from the receive buffer and converts this print data to print image data (step S54), and writes the print image data to the output buffer (step S55). This image data is temporarily stored in the output buffer.
Printing starts when the print image data for one pass in the main scanning direction has been written to the output buffer. The print image data is therefore read from the output buffer (step S56) and printed by the print mechanism 15 (step S57). This process repeats until printing all print data is completed.
In this arrangement, the host computer sends print data with a print start command, and the printer converts the print data to image data for printing and writes the print image data to the output buffer each time the print start command is received. The process executed by this print media processing apparatus also assumes that the reading process and the printing process are executed for each slip one by one. More particularly, this arrangement does not anticipate continuously reading and processing a plurality of slips.
When this print media processing apparatus is caused to continuously read and process a plurality of slips, print data is received from the host computer 110 and temporarily stored in the receive buffer each time one slip is read, the print data is read from the receive buffer, converted to the print image data, and written to the output buffer to execute the printing process. This does not afford smoothly processing a plurality of slips.
Methods of accelerating the process of storing the print image data to the output buffer are also known from the literature. Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-H5-212916, for example, teaches a printer that internally converts print data sent from the host computer to bitmap image data and outputs and stores the converted bitmap image data in an external storage device in a file format. The printer can then directly read the bitmap image data from the external storage device for printing without again converting data to bitmap image data, and thereby shortens the printing time.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-H6-4231 teaches a printer that separates character data in a compressed format into a predefined first character data group and another second character data group, stores the character data groups in a first character data storage unit, and expands and stores all character data for the first character data group to a second character data storage unit when the printer power turns on. When a print command is then received, the printer reads and prints the character data from the second character data storage unit if the character data to be printed is character data belonging to the first character data group. This eliminates the need to convert characters in the first character data group, which contains frequently occurring characters, each time a job is printed, and thus greatly improves the overall effective printing speed of the printer.
See also Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-H10-217551.
When only certain print data is used in a particular application, such as printing on checks or other slips, sending the print data from the host computer and converting the print data to bitmap image data for every print job before printing starts causes a significant loss of time. This time loss is particularly apparent when continuously processing a plurality of slips. Even if the technology taught in Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-H6-4231 is used, the bitmap image data must be read from the output buffer each time a slip is scanned, and the speed increase that can be achieved when continuously processing multiple forms is therefore limited.